What is Happening in South Africa: The Murder of 14 yr old "Stompie" The Murder of 14 yr old "Stompie" The Murder of James "Stompie" Seipei James Seipei (1974–1988), also known as Stompie Moeketsi, was a teenage African National Congress (ANC) activist from Parys in South Africa. He was kidnapped and murdered on 29 December 1988 by members of Winnie Mandela's bodyguards, known as the Mandela United football club. Moeketsi joined the street uprising against apartheid in the mid 1980s at age ten, and soon took on a leading role. He became the country's youngest political detainee when he spent his 12th birthday in jail without trial. At the age of 13 he was expelled from school . Moeketsi was kidnapped on 29 December 1988 after a school rally, accused of being a police informer and murdered at the age of 14. His body was found in Soweto with his throat slit.

Jerry Richardson, one of Winnie Mandela's bodyguards, was convicted of the murder. He claimed that she had ordered him to abduct four young men from Soweto, of whom Stompie was the youngest. The four were severely beaten and Stompie's body was later recovered by the police. Involvement of Winnie Mandela Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winfreda Madikizelza; 26 September 1936) is a South AfricanAfrican National Congress Women's League. She is currently a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee. Although still married to Nelson Mandela at the time of his becoming president of South Africa in May 1994, she was never the first lady of South Africa, as the couple had separated two years earlier after it was revealed that Winnie had been unfaithful during Nelson's incarceration. Their divorce was finalized on 19 March 1996, with an unspecified out-of-court settlement. Winnie Mandela's attempt to obtain a settlement up to US$5 million, half of what she claimed her ex-husband was worth, was dismissed when she failed to appear at court for a financial settlement hearing.

A controversial activist, she is popular among her supporters, who refer to her as the 'Mother of the Nation', yet reviled by others, mostly due to her alleged involvement in several human rights abuses, including the 1989 kidnap of 14-year old ANC activist Stompie Moeketsi, who was later murdered. In March 2009, the Independent Electoral Commission ruled that Winnie Mandela, who was selected as an ANC candidate, could run in the April 2009 general election, despite having a fraud conviction. Early life Her Xhosa name is Nomzamo. Nomzamo means "trial (having a hard time in life)". She was born in the village of eMbongweni, Bizana, in the Pondo region of what is now South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. She held a number of jobs in various parts of what was then the Bantustan of Transkei, including with the Transkei government, living at various times in Bizana, Shawbury and Johannesburg. She met lawyer and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in 1957.

They were married in 1958 and had two daughters, Zenani (also called Zeni) (b.1959) and Zindzi (b.1960). In June 2010, Winnie was treated for shock after the death of her great-granddaughter, Zenani, who was killed in a car accident on the eve of the opening of South Africa's World Cup. She has diabetes. Despite restrictions on education of blacks during apartheid, Mandela earned a degree in social work from the Jan Hofmeyer School in Johannesburg, and several years later earned a Bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Witwatersrand, also in Johannesburg. She is also a qualified Social Worker. Apartheid Mandela emerged as a leading opponent of the white minority rule government during the later years of her husband's long imprisonment (August 1963 – February 1990). For many of those years, she was exiled to the town of Brandfort in the Orange Free State and confined to the area, except for the times she was allowed to visit her husband at the prison on Robben Island.

Beginning in 1969, she spent eighteen months in solitary confinement at Pretoria Central Prison. During the 1980s as well as the early 1990s, she attracted immense national and international media attention and was interviewed by many foreign journalists as well as national journalists such as Jani Allan, then Leading Columnist of the South African Sunday Times. In a leaked letter to Jacob Zuma in October 2008, just-resigned President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki alluded to the role the ANC created for her in the anti-apartheid activism: In the context of the global struggle for the release of political prisoners in our country, our movement took a deliberate decision to profile Nelson Mandela as the representative personality of these prisoners, and therefore to use his personal political biography, including the persecution of his then wife, Winnie Mandela, dramatically to present to the world and the South African community the brutality of the apartheid system.

Violent rhetoric and murder allegations Mandela's reputation was damaged by what many considered her sometimes bloodthirsty rhetoric, the most noteworthy example of this being a speech she gave in Munsieville on 13 April 1986, where she endorsed the practice of necklacing (burning people alive using tyres and petrol) in the struggle to end apartheid. She said, "with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country". Further tarnishing her reputation were accusations by her bodyguard, Jerry Musivuzi Richardson, that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela ordered kidnapping and murder. On 29 December 1988, Richardson, coach of the Mandela United Football Club (MUFC) -- which acted as Mrs. Mandela's personal security detail -- abducted 14-year-old James Seipei (also known as Stompie Moeketsi ) and three other youths from the home of Methodist minister Rev. Paul Verryn. Mrs. Mandela claimed that she had the youth taken to her home because she suspected the reverend was sexually abusing them.

The four were beaten in order to get them to admit to sex with the reverend and Seipei was also accused of being an informer. Seipei's body was found in a field with stab wounds to the throat on 6 January 1989. This incident became a cause célèbre for the apartheid government. In 1991, she was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault in connection with the death of Seipei. Her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine on appeal. The final report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation commission, issued in 1998, found "Ms Winnie Madikizela Mandela politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the MUFC." Transition to democracy During South Africa's transition to democracy, she adopted a far less conciliatory attitude than her husband toward the dominant white community.

Despite being on her husband's arm when he was released in 1990, the first time the two had been seen in public for nearly thirty years, the Mandelas' 38-year marriage ended when they separated in April 1992 after it was revealed that she had been unfaithful to Nelson during his imprisonment. The couple divorced in March 1996. She then adopted the surname Madikizela-Mandela. Appointed Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in the first post-Apartheid government (May 1994), she was dismissed eleven months later following allegations of corruption. She remained popular among many ANC supporters, and, in December 1993 and April 1997, she was elected president of the ANC Women's League, though she withdrew her candidacy for ANC Deputy President at the movement's Mafikeng conference in December 1997. In 1997, she appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Archbishop Desmond Tutu as chairman of the commission recognised her importance in the anti-apartheid struggle, but also begged her to apologize and to admit her mistakes.

In a guarded response, she echoed his words, admitting that "things went horribly wrong". Legal problems On 24 April 2003, she was found guilty on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft, and her broker, Addy Moolman, was convicted on 58 counts of fraud and 25 of theft. Both had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which related to money taken from loan applicants' accounts for a funeral fund, but from which the applicants did not benefit. Madikizela-Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison. Shortly after the conviction, she resigned from all leadership positions in the ANC, including her parliamentary seat and the presidency of the ANC Women's League. In late 2003, her close friend and socialite Hazel Crane was murdered. Crane previously offered to buy Madikizela-Mandela a house. In July 2004, an appeal judge of the Pretoria High Court ruled that "the crimes were not committed for personal gain". The judge overturned the conviction for theft, but upheld the one for fraud, handing her a three years and six months suspended sentence.

In June 2007, the Canadian High Commission in South Africa declined to grant Winnie Mandela a visa to travel to Toronto, Canada, where she was scheduled to attend a gala fundraising concert organised by arts organization MusicaNoir, which included the world premiere of The Passion of Winnie, an opera based on her life. Return to politics When the ANC announced the election of its National Executive Committee on 21 December 2007, Mandela placed first with 2845 votes. Apology to riot victims Mandela criticised the anti-immigrant violence in May–June 2008 that began in Johannesburg and spread throughout the country, and blamed the government's lack of suitable housing provisions for the sentiments behind the riots. She also apologized to the victims of the riots and visited the Alexandra township. She also offered her home as a shelter for an immigrant family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She warned that the perpetrators of the violence could strike at the Gauteng train system.

2009 general election Mandela secured fifth place on the ANC's electoral list for the 2009 general election, behind party president and current President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, former President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe, Deputy President of South Africa Baleka Mbete, and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. An article in The Observer suggested that her position near the top of the list indicated that the party's leadership saw her as a valuable asset in the election with regard to solidifying support among the party's grassroots and the poor. In 1991, Winnie Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault but her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence on appeal. 2010 interview with Nadira Naipaul In 2010, Madikizela-Mandela was interviewed by Nadira Naipaul . In the interview, she attacked her ex-husband, claiming that he had "let blacks down", claiming that he was only "wheeled out to collect money", and that he is "nothing more than a foundation". She further attacked his decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize with FW De Klerk .

Among other things, she also claimed that Mandela was no longer "accessible" to her daughters. She referred to archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his capacity as the head of the Truth and Reconciliation commission as a "cretin". The interview attracted media attention, and the ANC announced it would ask her to explain the apparent attack on Nelson Mandela. On 14 March 2010 a statement was issued on behalf of Winnie Mandela claiming that the interview was a "fabrication". My husband and I have just crossed Africa. On the final leg of our journey we had finally come to South Africa – a place that now went hand in hand with the name Mandela. My husband had been reluctant to come here but then he had followed his instinct and it had brought us to the Soweto door of the mystifying Winnie Mandela, a much celebrated and reviled woman of our times. Looking out at her garden, I wondered how long we would have to wait to see her. We were in a stronghold of sorts, with high enclosing walls and electronic gates which were controlled from inside a bunker-like guardhouse. There were tall muscular men dressed in black who casually appeared and disappeared.

In the late Eighties, Winnie’s thuggish bodyguards, the Mandela United Football Club, terrorized Soweto. Club “captain” was Jerry Richardson, who died in prison last year while serving life for the murder of Stompie Moeketsi, a 14-year-old who was kidnapped with three other boys and beaten in the home where we would soon sit, sipping coffee. Winnie was sentenced to six years for kidnap, which was reduced to a fine on appeal. Members of the gang would later testify to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Winnie had ordered the torture, murder and kidnap of her own people, and even participated directly. Winnie used to live, before she was famous, down one of the narrow, congested streets with small brick and iron sheet houses. Soweto is still a predominately black township: tourists come in buses to gawp at the streets linked to freedom, apartheid and Mandela. Winnie now has an imposing fortress on the hill. The garden is full of trees and well-manicured shrubs. We walked straight into a small cluttered hallway. It was full of the man: Mandela. He was everywhere.

Presents, portraits, honorary degrees and letters covering every empty space on the walls. There was an air of expectancy as we entered. Our fixer had arranged this meeting with Winnie (or Mama Mandela, her township name) through her confidant and admirer. He is a young man in his early forties who is a well-known television presenter here and clearly an ardent devotee. He sat us down and talked softly about her. The politics of his generation, he said, had been defined by this woman. Her courage, her fire and her sheer stubbornness had made them men. They saw how unafraid she was and the risks and humiliations she was willing to absorb. These humiliations had not ended with apartheid. She was discarded, demonized and betrayed, he said. My nerves were playing up: my husband does not like to be kept waiting at the best of times. He is punctilious and has been known to walk away from a delayed meeting, leaving me to deal with the fallout. It was at that moment she appeared, tall, carefully attired in soft grey, wearing her signature wig. She held Vidia’s outstretched hand and asked him to sit next to her.

She flashed a smile in my direction. The air was electrified by her presence. I did what was expected of me. I asked her if she was happy with the way things had panned out in South Africa. Winnie looked at my husband. Did he wish for the truth? She had heard of him. He pursued the truth or the closest he could get to it. No, she was not happy. And she had her reasons. “I kept the movement alive,” she began. “You have been in the township. You have seen how bleak it still is. Well, it was here where we flung the first stone. It was here where we shed so much blood. Nothing could have been achieved without the sacrifice of the people. Black people.” She looked at Vidia expecting another question. He said nothing, but his dark hooded eyes shone and she carried on with her eyes firmly locked onto his face. “The ANC was in exile. The entire leadership was on the run or in jail. And there was no one to remind these people, black people, of the horror of their daily reality; when something so abnormal as apartheid becomes a daily reality. It was our reality.

And four generations had lived with it – as non-people.” As she spoke, I looked at her thinking she was, at 73, as her reputation promised, quite extraordinary. The ANC had needed this passionate revolutionary. Without her, the fire would have been so easily extinguished and she had used everything and anything to stoke it. While some still refer to her as Mother of the Nation, she is decried by many because of her links to the Stompie murder and other violent crimes during the apartheid era, and a conviction for fraud. “Were you not afraid?” I asked instinctively, but then I regretted this foolish query. She looked towards my chair. Her grey glasses focused on my face. “Yes, I was afraid in the beginning. But then there is only so much they can do to you. After that it is only death. They can only kill you, and as you see, I am still here.” I knew that the apartheid enforcers had done everything in their power to break this woman. She had suffered every indignity a person could bear.

They had picked her up in the night and placed her under house arrest in Brandfort, a border town in Orange Free State, 300 miles from Soweto. “It was exile,” she said, “when everything else had failed.” At this remote outpost, where she spent nine years, she had recruited young men for the party. “Right under their noses,” she said to Vidia, laughing with the memory of it. “The only worry or pain I had was for my daughters. Never really knowing what was happening to them. I feel they have really suffered in all this. Not me or Mandela,” she said. Her two young daughters had never quite understood what was really happening. Bad men went to prison. Their father was in prison but he was not bad. “That anguish was unbearable for me as a mother, not knowing how my children coped when they held me in long solitary confinement.” Zenani, now 51, and Zindzi, 50, remain very much in the background, having no wish to enter politics themselves, Winnie said. Nelson Mandela is no longer “accessible” to his daughters and they have to get through much red tape just to speak to their father, she told us.

Winnie brought up his name very casually, as if it was of no real value to her: not any more. “This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family. You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and there were others in the leadership too, like poor Steve Biko, who died of the beatings, horribly all alone. Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out,” she said, looking to the writer. He said nothing but listened. It is hard to knock a living legend. Only a wife, a lover or a mistress has that privilege. Only they are privy to the intimate inner man, I thought. “Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside. The economy is very much ‘white’. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded.” She was pained. Her uncreased brown face had lost the softness.

“I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel [Peace Prize in 1993] with his jailer [FW] de Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think de Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart? He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed, and our struggle was not a flash in the pan, it was bloody to say the least and we had given rivers of blood. I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal”. We could believe that. The world-famous images flashed before our eyes and I am sure hers. The burning tyres – Winnie endorsed the necklacing of collaborators in a speech in 1985 (“with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country”) – the stoning, the bullets, the terrible deaths of “informers”. Her often bloodthirsty rhetoric has marred her reputation. “Look at this Truth and Reconciliation charade. He should never have agreed to it.” Again her anger was focused on Mandela. “What good does the truth do? How does it help anyone to know where and how their loved ones were killed or buried?

That Bishop Tutu who turned it all into a religious circus came here,” she said pointing to an empty chair in the distance. “He had the cheek to tell me to appear. I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and ME. Because of the things I and people like me had done to get freedom.” Winnie did appear before the TRC in 1997, which in its report judged her to have been implicated in murders: “The commission finds Mandela herself was responsible for committing such gross violations of human rights.” When begged by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to admit that “things went horribly wrong” and apologise, Winnie finally said sorry to Stompie’s mother and to the family of her former personal doctor whose killing she is alleged to have ordered after he refused to cover up Stompie’s murder. Someone brought in the coffee and we took the offered cups in silence. “I am not alone. The people of Soweto are still with me. Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more.

They put that huge statue of him right in the middle of the most affluent “white” area of Johannesburg. Not here where we spilled our blood and where it all started. Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that. The ANC have effectively sidelined him but they keep him as a figurehead for the sake of appearance.” The eyes behind the grey tinted glasses were fiery with anger. It was an economic betrayal, she was saying, nothing had changed for the blacks, except that apartheid had officially gone. As she spoke of betrayal she inadvertently looked at a portrait of Mandela. I looked at Winnie. Maybe she did not know when to stop. Maybe that is the bane of a revolutionary: they gather such momentum that he or she can’t stop. I saw that although her trials and tribulations had been recorded, the scars on the inner, most secret part of her spirit tormented her. But for Winnie the deaths, the burning tyres around the necks of the informers and her own Faustian pacts perhaps made Mandela and his vaunted wisdom look like feeble compromises from a feeble man.

No one could expect him to protect her or his children from his 27-year incarceration but now he was out he had wanted peace. He had longings, perhaps scars in the mind, fears and perhaps even wisdom that she could not match or return. The rumour rife in South Africa was that she could not abide him or touch him during their two-year attempt to salvage the marriage after his release in 1990. It was all too sad. And though he had been prepared to forgive the past, his wife’s affairs while he was in prison, it had not worked. They divorced in 1996, having spent only five of their 38 married years together. Her anger was a mighty liability and her defiance was too awful for words. “I am not sorry. I will never be sorry. I would do everything I did again if I had to. Everything.” She paused. I thought of the terrible shadow of the murder of Stompie. Winnie had flung the stone that had cracked the one-way mirror of apartheid. The “interrogators”, the compromisers, were now all unmasked and for what? “You know, sometimes I think we had not thought it all out.

There was no planning from our side. How could we? We were badly educated and the leadership does not acknowledge that. Maybe we have to go back to the drawing board and see where it all went wrong.” This was Winnie the politician. This was the phoenix. Publicly, the ANC leadership, who made her a minister in the first post-apartheid government in 1994 and welcomed her back subsequently, distanced themselves from her amid allegations of corruption (in 2003, she was convicted of fraud and given a suspended prison sentence). But for the masses, she spoke their language and remains popular with those who feel their government hasn’t done enough. We could see why the ANC had needed this obdurate woman. She was bold and had an idea of her worth. She was the perfect mistress for the ANC in the bad times but then she became dangerous. As we stood up to leave, we saw a photograph of a young Winnie looking wistfully into the camera. She was ravishingly beautiful and Mandela had sought her. But the battle was over. She had played her part. It was over.

She had been sidelined and discarded, but since the freedom had not brought the promised dream for the vast black population, she would continue to play her hand in politics. Of that I was sure. She was still a woman who could reflect the dangerous part of a man’s dream, whatever it may be. “When I was born my mother was very disappointed. She wanted a son. I knew that from a very early age. So I was a tomboy. I wanted to be a doctor at some point and I was always bringing home strays from school. People who were too poor to pay fees or have food. My parents never rebuked me or told me that they were hard-pressed, too.” She lit up talking of her past and of early memories that had nothing to do with the struggle. And then she suddenly turned towards Vidia and said: “But when I am alone I cannot help but think of the past. The past is still alive in here. In my head.” She pointed to the brain. Was it all nothing but a great loss? I wanted to know. Part of me ached for her. As a woman I felt her great transgressions and the pain.

I wanted to tell her that if I had been Mandela I would have forgiven her but I lacked the courage. What would Vidia say to me if I did? He was saying goodbye. My eyes were filling. Instinctively she turned and looked into me and her eyes softened. She walked towards me and pulled me into her embrace. “I know what you want to say,” she whispered into my ear, “and for that I am grateful.” (The interview appeared on the London Evening Standard on the 8th March 2010. Days later Winnie denied that the interview took place but Nadira insisted that it did) Can Winnie Mandela's Heroism Outshine her Crimes? by BBC News , January 25, 2010 The Rand Supreme Court sentences Jerry Richardson to death for the murder 14-year-old Stompie Seipei. Stompie Seipei was a child activist and member of the infamous Mandela Football Club established by Winnie Mandela as a front for the political mobilisation of township youths to stand against apartheid. Jerry Richardson abducted Seipei and three other boys near the Methodist Church (Manse), Soweto and took him to Winnie Mandela’s home.

Richardson alleged that Winnie Mandela initiated the torture of Seipei, who was sjamboked and bounced on the floor by Richardson. Seipei was allegedly tortured and killed for sexual misconduct with a Methodist reverend Paul Verryn who was accused by some of the boys for having homosexual practices with young boys. Winnie Mandela also accused Seipei for being a police informer, a charge that carried a death penalty in terms of township mob justice. Winnie Mandela denied any involvement in the death of Stompie Seipei and accused Richardson for lying. However, the judge implicated Winnie Mandela in Stompie Seipei’s death by ruling that she was present when Stompie Seipei was tortured. The death of Seipei continued to haunt Winnie Mandela until some closure was reached when Winnie Mandela accepted, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, some responsibility for the death of Seipei. Winnie Mandela had already apologised to Seipei’s mother for the loss of her son, but maintained her innocence.

Refworld | South Africa: Information on the Mandela United Football Club South Africa: Information on the Mandela United Football Club Publisher Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada Publication Date ZAF10810 Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, South Africa: Information on the Mandela United Football Club, 1 May 1992, ZAF10810, available at: [accessed 19 January 2017] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Please find attached some documents which describe the Mandela United Football Club. One article states that the "Mandela United soccer team" was formed by Winnie Mandela in 1986 and its members acted as her bodyguards (The Globe and Mail 16 Feb. 1989).

Another article indicates that the club exerted a "reign of terror" over Soweto since 1986, when Winnie Mandela returned to that township after eight years of exile in the Orange Free State (The Daily Telegraph 14 May 1991). The club reportedly wore orange and green track suits, accompanied Mandela as personal bodyguards and set up a "kangaroo court" at the back of her home "where judgement was pronounced and punishment meted out to opponents and anyone they regarded as traitors" (Ibid.). The article adds that the club members did not play soccer but were involved, between 1987 and 1989, in more than twelve murders, several abductions and at least two rapes (Ibid.). The club reportedly kept a "black book" of prospective victims to be taken before their court, where punishment "invariably involved beatings," and has been held responsible for "throwing grenades into a shebeen, shootings, blowing up houses and, after one kidnap, carving `Viva ANC' into the flesh of two teenagers and pouring battery acid on their wounds" (Ibid.).

The source adds that Winnie Mandela claimed ignorance about the club's "nefarious activities" although it operated from her home and several people reportedly testified that she was a party to the violence and presided over the "kangaroo courts" (Ibid.). Another news article describes the Football Club as "a group of tough youths who live with Mrs. Mandela, and act as her private security force" (Ibid. 30 Jan. 1989). The report adds that the team was accused of "exploiting their links with the Mandela name to terrorise local people, and are alleged to have abducted and abused teenage girls" (Ibid.). According to the source, Soweto activists formed a "Mandela Crisis Committee" that urged Winnie Mandela to disband the team. Four youths who were staying at a Soweto Methodist church were reportedly abducted by the team in what some activists stated was a "retaliation for the Methodist minister's involvement with the Mandela Crisis Committee" (Ibid.). One of the youths reportedly suffered serious throat injuries caused by a pair of garden shears while another went missing (Ibid.).

The missing youth, "Stompie" Seipei, was later found dead (see below and Response to Information Request 10811 of 15 May 1992 and its attachments). The Associated Press states that in February 1990 "a group of South Africa's most prominent black leaders said the soccer team engaged in a `reign of terror' in Soweto" and "urged the community to shun Mrs. Mandela" (AP 8 Aug. 1990). An oral source consulted by the IRBDC described the Mandela United Football Club as not being a sports club, but rather a group of black youths gathered around Winnie Mandela and organizaed by Jerry Richardson (Private Consultant 6 May 1992). The source added that this group invariably posed as Winnie Mandela's bodyguards, adding that the black community in South Africa has accused it of employing intimidation tactics and being involved in "questionable dealings" (Ibid.).

One article describes the Mandela United Football Club as a group of young bodyguards who acquired a reputation in Soweto as "a gang of ruthless thugs" held responsible for at least 16 murders (Christian Science Monitor 9 Oct. 1990). The group is blamed for "a series of kidnappings, beatings and murders [that] culminated in December 1988 with the abduction of four youths from a Methodist mission in Soweto" (Ibid.). The leader of the group, Jerry Richardson, was convicted for the murder of the youngest abduction victim, "Stompie" Seipei (Ibid.). References The Associated Press (AP). 8 August 1990, AM Cycle. "Winnie Mandela's Bodyguard Sentenced to Death." (NEXIS) The Christian Science Monitor. 9 October 1990. John Battersby. "Winnie Mandela Stages Comeback Despite Court Challenges Ahead." (NEXIS) The Daily Telegraph. 14 May 1991. Neil Darbyshire. "The Mandela Soccer Club: How Winnie's Team Played to Kill." (NEXIS) . 30 January 1989. Stephen Robinson. "Mrs.

Mandela's `Football Club' Accused of Foul Tactics." (NEXIS) The Globe and Mail. 16 February 1989, p. A14. "Mandela Van Impounded by Police." (NEXIS) Private Consultant and author of reports on South Africa, Ottawa. 6 May 1992. Telephone Interview. Attachments The Christian Science Monitor. 9 October 1990. John Battersby. "Winnie Mandela Stages Comeback Despite Court Challenges Ahead." (NEXIS) The Daily Telegraph. 14 May 1991. Neil Darbyshire. "The Mandela Soccer Club: How Winnie's Team Played to Kill." (NEXIS) . 30 January 1989. Stephen Robinson. "Mrs. Mandela's `Football Club' Accused of Foul Tactics." (NEXIS) Copyright notice: This document is published with the permission of the copyright holder and producer Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). The original version of this document may be found on the offical website of the IRB at . Documents earlier than 2003 may be found only on Refworld.

SAPA - 12 Sep 97 - KAUNDA CLARIFIES STATEMENT ON CEBEKHULU ABDUCTION September 12 1997 - SAPA KAUNDA CLARIFIES STATEMENT ON CEBEKHULU ABDUCTION Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda on Friday said he had assumed that a request to imprison a key witness in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's kidnapping trial had been made by then ANC president Oliver Tambo on behalf of President Nelson Mandela. In a statement, Kaunda said his attention had been drawn to a documentary recently screened on public television in Britain and South Africa regarding the case of Katiza Cebekhulu. Kaunda's television interview was also detailed in a book about Cebekhulu - Katiza's Journey - written by British author Fred Bridgland. Cebekhulu disappeared on the eve of the trial in which he and Madikizela-Mandela were accused of involvement in the kidnapping of teenage activist Stompie Seipei, and was later discovered in a Lusaka jail by former British MP Emma Nicholson.

Kaunda said: "The impression may have been created by an interview of myself (in the documentary and book)... that I received a request personally from Mr Oliver Tambo on behalf of Mr Nelson Mandela to see to the holding in custody of Cebekhulu. "I must clarify that in fact I did not receive a direct communication from Mr Oliver Tambo himself on this matter. It was (Zambian) government officials who informed me that they had received such a request from officials of Mr Tambo." Kaunda said he had then, in good faith, assumed that Mandela had supported "this initiative or action". "The truth is that I have never received a direct or indirect message from Mr Mandela on this matter." Bridgland wrote that according to Zambian government records Kaunda himself believed Mandela might have been the mastermind behind the abduction and imprisonment without trial. Referring to the interview with Kaunda, he wrote: "Kaunda recalled the Cebkhulu case, and Emma asked him whether Nelson Mandela had told him why he wanted Katiza Cebekhulu here and out of South Africa." Bridgland quoted Kaunda's reply: "He didn't give me any reason at all.

What I did was to work on trust." Kuanda explained the message had come from Tambo. "He (Tambo) said that Nelson Mandela wants this man out of South Africa... He said we must go by what Nelson has said about his. And so we took that on trust, and that's how the young man found himself in trouble." Asked whether Tambo had claimed to be talking on behalf of Mandela, Kaunda replied: "Exactly". Earlier this week the president's office said Mandela did not arrange for Cebekhulu to be taken out of South Africa or to be incarcerated in Zambia. The president also denied having meeting Cebekhulu during a visit to Zambia in 1992, as claimed in the book. The ANC on Friday said it hoped Kaunda's comment would clarify confusion arising from the book and television documentary about the roles of Mandela and Tambo.

"We remain convinced that, as information of this nature comes to light, the true character and intention of those behind the current campaign will be exposed." From the moment the allegations in the book and documentary were publicised, "it became unacceptable and unfortunate that the name of President Nelson Mandela and that of the late Oliver Tambo were used at a time when the latter is not in a postition to respond personally to the allegations". Cebekhulu claimed he was abducted and imprisoned in Zambia by the ANC to avoid implicating Madikizela-Mandela in the murder of 13-year-old Seipei and several other township activists. Cebekhulu, who is in hiding overseas under Nicholson's protection, has applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

� South African Press Association, 1996 This text is for information only and may not be published or reprinted without the permission of the South African Press Association SAPA - 28 Nov 97 - WINNIE'S FAMOUS SPEECH "A CALL FOR KILLIING COLLABORATORS" JOHANNESBURG Nov 28 - SAPA-AP WINNIE'S FAMOUS SPEECH "A CALL FOR KILLIING COLLABORATORS" Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's most famous speech, in which she said anti-apartheid activists would use the gruesome "necklace" method of killing to liberate South Africa, was in effect a call to kill police collaborators in black townships, one of her former colleagues said Friday. Murphy Morobe, a top black activist in the 1980s, said under questioning before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the 1986 call by President Nelson Mandela's ex-wife was likely interpreted by township activists to use violence against perceived informers. "In a sense, in that environment, that interpretation is one of the most probable ones," Morobe said.

In her speech, Madikizela-Mandela said "with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we will liberate this country." She referred to the method of killing in which victims had a tire placed around their neck, were doused with gasoline and set on fire. Stompie Seipei, a 14-year-old activist accused of being an informer, was killed after being abducted by Madikizela-Mandela's bodyguards and beaten at her house in late 1988. The chief bodyguard, Jerry Richardson, was convicted of killing Seipei and is serving a life prison sentence. Tony Richard, a lawyer representing Richardson before the Truth Commission, asked Morobe about the 1986 speech in an effort to show that killing informers was sanctioned by Madikizela-Mandela. A series of witnesses have detailed killings, beatings, torture and other atrocities allegedly committed by Madikizela-Mandela's bodyguards, known as the Mandela United Football Club, in the late 1980s in the Soweto black township.

The commission is investigating 18 human rights abuses allegedly linked to the bodyguards and Madikizela-Mandela, 63, who was divorced last year and took back her maiden name, Madikizela, with her married name. While the commission lacks the power to press criminal charges, it can pass on evidence to police for an investigation. Madikizela-Mandela has always denied any guilt for the longstanding accusations against her. Dressed in a black-and-white outfit with three strands of pearls and gold jewelry, she showed little emotion on Friday, the fifth day of the hearing, as lawyers cross-examined Morobe and another longtime activist, Azar Cachalia. Cachalia, now a top official in the Safety and Security Ministry, on Thursday made the strongest statement to date by any former colleague of Madikizela-Mandela, accusing her of sanctioning and even participating human rights abuses. He was a member of an anti-apartheid movement that publicly distanced itself from Madikizela-Mandela in 1989, after Seipei's death and other crimes blamed on the bodyguard unit.

Cachalia received a loud ovation Thursday when he called for anyone convicted of gross human rights abuses to be barred from public office. Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault in 1991 in the case involving Seipei and three other young men. Initially sentenced to six years in jail, she eventually paid a dlrs 3,200 fine on appeal. On Friday, Cachalia said he wasn't referring specifically to Madikizela-Mandela in his call the day before. He also agreed the South African Constitution, which bans people who have been sentenced to prison for 12 months or more for a human rights abuse from holding public office, covered the matter. Madikizela-Mandela is running for deputy president of the governing African National Congress next month and if successful, could become deputy president of the country after the next national election in 1999. Because her prison sentence was wiped out on appeal, she would avoid the constitutional ban. The testimony of Cachalia and Morobe showed the split that developed in the anti-apartheid movement over Madikizela-Mandela and her bodyguards.

The mainstream ANC leadership, including Mandela, opposes her bid for the party leadership post. Mandela was in prison when the Seipei murder and other crimes occurred. He was released in 1990, and the couple separated in 1992 and divorced last year. The British Broadcasting Co. reported Thursday that convicted killer Cyril Mbatha will testify that Madikizela-Mandela handed him and other a gun to carry out the January 1989 murder of Dr. Abu Asvat. Mabatha said in the interview from a South African prison that she wanted Asvat killed because the doctor refused to provide false medical records that would help her avoid suspicion in the death of Seipei. The interview repeated allegations made in September by Thulani Dlamini, the other man convicted in the Asvat killing, that Madikizela-Mandela was behind the killing.

� South African Press Association, 1997 This text is for information only and may not be published or reprinted without the permission of the South African Press Association Winnie Mandela Boyfriend | Winnie Mandela made me kill, says murderer Multiple killer blames violent career on her - tribunedigital-baltimoresun Winnie Mandela made me kill, says murderer Multiple killer blames violent career on her December 04, 1997|By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite | Gilbert A. Lewthwaite,SUN FOREIGN STAFF JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Jerry Richardson, coach of the notorious Mandela United Football Club, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission yesterday that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela ordered all the murders and assaults he committed. "My hands are full of blood today because I was instructed to kill and I would do as I was told," said the key witness against the former wife of President Nelson Mandela. "She was the one that gave the go-ahead or green light for anything that happened. Everything I committed was an order. It was an instruction given to me. I never on my own volition did such things.

"The things we did as the Mandela football club are horrible," said Richardson. "They're barbaric." Commissioner Fazel Randera asked Richardson how a father of young children and a soccer coach could be turned so readily into a "killing machine." Replied Richardson, "Things got out of hand. "I am not proud of what I did, but I feel I am serving my sentence and, to me, that is enough." Madikizela-Mandela sat grim-faced as he implicated her in the beatings and executions of young men and one young woman who were suspected of being police informers in the late 1980s. She will respond today to the accusations presented to the commission during eight days of hearings into the violence that surrounded the "mother of the nation" and the soccer club she started in 1986 to keep young men out of trouble on the streets. The club, according to testimony to the commission, quickly developed into a vigilante gang that terrorized the black township of Soweto. Madikizela-Mandela, judging from her attorney's handling of the hearing, will present herself as a maligned social worker who was unaware of the club's activities.

She also can be expected to ridicule the credibility of her accusers, most of whom have criminal records and have admitted lying, if only to protect her from prosecution. Throughout his daylong testimony, Richardson stuck by his assertion that she authorized the beatings and killings of and by members of the soccer club. Chilling to petulant Overall, his performance swung from the chilling to the petulant. Theatrically, he carried a miniature orange and white soccer ball to the witness table. His answers to questions were frequently evasive or obstructive. His memory appeared to wax and wane at will. "There is some honesty," quipped an exasperated Archbishop Desmond Tutu, commission chairman, when Richardson admitted he was "trying my luck" by applying for amnesty for his crimes. Ishmail Semenya, attorney for Madikizela-Mandela, seized the moment: "I want to put it to you that your suggestion that all of these activities were done at the instruction of Madikizela-Mandela is, as you put it, 'trying your luck.' " Richardson replied: "I deny that.

There's absolutely no truth in that statement." The mother of Stompie Seipei, a 14-year-old club member who was accused falsely of being a police informer, wept as Richardson began to describe how her son was beaten and killed. She left the hearing before the most gruesome details of how Richardson and a comrade called "Sledge" ended Stompie's life. "I slaughtered him like a goat," said Richardson, a burly man with an aggressive demeanor who is serving a life sentence for the murder. Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of taking part in the youth's abduction and received a suspended sentence. "We made him lay on his back and put the garden shears through his neck. The shears punctured to the back of his neck. "Sledge also had his own pair of garden shears. He cut Stompie's neck. He really wanted to make sure he cut Stompie's throat. "Ultimately we saw that Stompie was dead. We went into a river and washed the traces of blood off." Constantly referring to Madikizela-Mandela as "Mammy," he told the commission: "I killed Stompie under instructions from Mammy.

Mammy never killed anyone. She used us to kill a lot of people. She didn't even visit us in prison. She used us." Richardson said he became impatient during an attempt to kill another suspected informer, Leratodi Ikaneng. Not 'professional' "They weren't doing a professional job," he said. "I took the shears. I stabbed Leratodi through the neck. When I pulled the garden shears [out], I could hear Leratodi gasping, and blood was coming out of his mouth. "I realized he had not yet died. We took him and threw him in a shallow grave." Ikaneng survived to give similar testimony to the commission this week. After he slit the throat of a young woman, accused of being an informer after Madikizela-Mandela allegedly became a rival for her boyfriend's affections, Madikizela-Mandela wanted to be shown where he had hidden the body, near a school, he said. He took her to the site where she worried it would be found. It wasn't, until Richardson showed police the grave in 1995.

Richardson admitted being a police informer himself, betraying the presence of two guerrillas in his house. The guerrillas were killed in a raid by the police, which also left Richardson's police "handler" dead. Richardson was asked by Khoza Mgojo, a member of the commission, how he had escaped the fate of the other informers. He replied: "They were very scared of me." The commission, which is not a court of justice with powers to establish guilt or innocence, will issue its final report to President Nelson Mandela in June. Pub Date: 12/04/97 SOUTH AFRICANS BURY SLAIN YOUTH - NYTimes.com SOUTH AFRICANS BURY SLAIN YOUTH By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN, Special to the New York Times Published: February 26, 1989 PARYS, South Africa, Feb. 25— Stompie Moeketsi enlisted in the street war against apartheid when he was 10 years old. At 11, he was organizing other children to fight the municipal police. He spent his 12th birthday in jail as a political detainee, the youngest in South Africa.

At 13, he had been expelled from school and was running from the authorities. And last month, at 14, his decomposing body was found near Soweto with its throat slit. Today, Stompie Moeketsi, whose real name was James Seipei, was buried in a field near his home in Thumahole, a ramshackle black township in the farmland of Orange Free State. He had become the anti-apartheid movement's newest martyr and one of its most unusual, because his death has been blamed not on the police but on bodyguards of Winnie Mandela, two of whom have been charged with his murder. 'He Found Little Enough Peace' ''Let Stompie rest in peace,'' a Methodist Bishop, Peter Storey, told mourners packed into St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on Thumahole's main street. ''He found little enough peace in his 14 years.'' The funeral, at which one speaker after another pleaded for unity, underscored two problems that the boy's grisly death has created for the anti-apartheid movement. One is that recriminations over the criminal behavior of the Mandela United Football Club, as Mrs.

Mandela's bodyuguards have called themselves, are dividing blacks who once cooperated in the struggle against apartheid. Mrs. Mandela's association with the club has led the anti-apartheid movement to turn its back on her. An attack Wednesday night by gunfire and firebombing on a house in Soweto, in which a 13-year-old girl was killed, is being investigated as possible revenge for the killing of one of Mrs. Mandela's former bodyguards, who had in turn been accused of torturing a comrade of Stompie Moeketsi. Pretoria Allows Publicity The other is that the Government appears ready to encourage the dissension by allowing an unusual amount of publicity about Stompie's abduction and death. Justice Minister Kobie H. Coetsee even waived the rules to let Tom Sebena, a spokesman for the outlawed African National Congress, be interviewed by state-run television for a documentary about the Winnie Mandela affair that was broadcast Thursday. Today, the Government did not restrict Stompie's funeral. Up to now, such public gatherings have been prohibited under the current State of Emergencies because they quickly turn into political rallies.

The police stopped cars entering Thumahole to check for weapons, but did not appear to turn anyone back. And in contrast to the show of force at previous funerals, the police wore plain clothes and watched the procession discreetly from parked cars and rooftops. More than 500 mourners packed the small church for the service. When they headed for the cemetery, the ranks swelled to well over 1,000 marchers. They chanted slogans as they jogged rhythmically through the rutted dirt streets, past shanties of corrugated metal and cinderblock. At the cemetery, the dead boy's mother, Joyce Seipei, sat listless on the red earth as the small white casket was lowered into grave No. 2201. Grasp of Political Issues Stompie's nickname alluded to his toughness, though he was slight and stood four feet tall. In 1987, he led as many as 1,500 children from 8 to 14 years old in a running battle with the authorities around Thumahole.

Those who knew him said he could recite by heart the Freedom Charter, a long bill of rights drafted by the African National Congress, and had an astonishing grasp of political issues. But he once confessed to a British journalist that he would have liked to own a bicycle and new clothes that fit. According to the police, friends and reports by news organizations, some soccer-club members abducted Stompie and several friends on Dec. 29 from the home of the Rev. Paul Verryn, a Methodist minister who had given them refuge in Soweto. The club members, who held a grudge against Mr. Verryn, drove the boys to Mrs. Mandela's house and beat them to make them say the white minister had sexually abused them. Two other boys gave in, but recanted afterward. Stompie refused and was battered bloody and into unconsciousness. No Mention of Winnie Mandela The club members assert that he then ran away. The community believes they then killed him. Today, Mr. Verryn said Stompie had brimmed with enthusiasm.

''He felt that he was fighting for the rights and the dignity of all South Africans and he was prepared to put his life on the line and stand for those rights,'' the minister said. Mrs. Mandela went conspicuously unmentioned at the funeral, apparently to prevent stirring up anger. In the only reference apparently made to the soccer club named for Mr. Mandela, Virginia Mthethwa of Soweto asked that people ''please stop misusing his name, because this man is our leader.'' Mr. Mandela's image has not been visibly tarnished by the scandal. Other speakers blamed the system that had consumed his youth for Stompie's death rather than his killers. S. African teen was killed by police spy Testimony in case of Winnie Mandela reveals official link - tribunedigital-baltimoresun S. African teen was killed by police spy Testimony in case of Winnie Mandela reveals official link Confessed killer denies spying South African police chief tells of paying murderer $2,100 for his services November 29, 1997|By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite | Gilbert A.

Lewthwaite,SUN FOREIGN STAFF JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The confessed killer of Stompie Seipei, the teen-age member of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's "football club" who was beaten and murdered after being accused of being a police informer, was a police spy himself, South Africa's police chief told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission yesterday. And, according to a police intelligence officer who also testified, Stompie was killed because he had discovered the double role Jerry Richardson was playing and was threatening to expose him. Richardson, who was convicted of the murder and is now seeking amnesty for the slaying of Stompie and two other youths, was the coach of the Mandela United Football Club, a group of young men who, according to testimony, terrorized Soweto in the late 1980s. Police Commissioner George Fivaz said that after Richardson was sentenced to life imprisonment for Stompie's murder, he demanded 10,000 rand ($2,100) he said he was owed by police for information he had given them while living at the Mandela house.

He wanted the money before he would help detectives solve other murders he had committed. Richardson was given the funds after police verified that he had been an informer but had not been paid. He then gave police details of the burial places of two or three other victims, helping the police solve one of the crimes. "I established from the investigators that the information from the source was useful," Fivaz said of Richardson's service. Richardson is to testify next week. His lawyer, Tony Richard, told the commission that his client denies being a police informer. Earlier the attorney said Richardson claimed that all his crimes were committed with the full knowledge and co-operation of Madikizela-Mandela. The commission is investigating the violence associated with Madikizela-Mandela and her football club, which acted as her bodyguard in an era when near political anarchy and lawlessness ruled the black townships. The government had banned almost all political activity and detained many established black leaders. The hearings, which began Monday and continue next week, have produced allegations linking the former wife of President Nelson Mandela with at least six murders and numerous assaults.

Disinformation against her She was convicted of kidnapping Stompie and three young men from a Methodist mission house in December 1988, after reports that they were being sexually abused by the white minister. She has denied all knowledge of the teen's death and of the other murders and assaults. The commission was also told yesterday that while the violence was erupting, Madikizela-Mandela was the target of intense police spying and disinformation. She was put under 24-hour surveillance, her phone was tapped and her home bugged. Paul Erasmus, the police intelligence officer charged with destroying her image, said he asked local undercover police agents in her Soweto hometown for more information on the Stompie killing but was not given it. "I heard at the time in official circles that he was murdered by Jerry Richardson after he [Stompie] had found out that Richardson was working for the security branch and threatened to expose him," he said in a document released yesterday. Erasmus was gathering information to use in his campaign to undermine her influence in the African National Congress, her support from her main constituency -- radical black youths -- and her reputation abroad. "President Mandela was the obvious target," he told the commission.

"But due to his impeccable integrity, it was difficult to target him." Instead, the security forces concentrated on his wife, presenting her as beyond her husband's control and "running rampant in the townships with her soccer club, who were inter alia intimidating the local population." Both fact and fiction were used by Stratcom, the police department's "dirty tricks" section, which continued its campaign against Madikizela-Mandela after her husband's release from prison in 1990. The aim was to diminish the ANC before the 1994 elections, which brought this country's first majority black government. After Mandela's release, he said, intelligence officers were told they had four years to reduce the ANC "to just another party." Scandalous rumors Erasmus said he leaked reports that the Mandelas were constantly arguing, that Nelson Mandela was going senile and had lost control of radical cadres in the party. Using paid or "friendly" reporters at home and abroad, he suggested that Madikizela-Mandela had sold out to "white capitalism" by having an affair with a leading white banker.

He even circulated a photograph of her with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was to become the chairman of the commission to which he testified yesterday, suggesting romantic involvement between the two. Ironically, he said, on the eve of this week's commission hearings reports began to circulate that he was having an affair with Madikizela-Mandela. He said it was an an attempt to discredit him. Pub Date: 11/29/97 Winnie won't be called for Stompie trial | News | National | M&G Winnie won't be called for Stompie trial Weekly Mail Reporter 11 May 1990 00:00 Winnie Mandela will not testify in the Rand Supreme Court where Jerry Richardson, the Mandela football team coach, is charged with the murder of teenage activist Stompie Seipei. Mandela had been mentioned on numerous occasions in the evidence. Richardson also faces four charges of abduction, five counts of assault and a charge of attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. LCJ van Vuuren, for the state, told the Weekly Mail: “Mrs Mandela is not on the state’s list of witnesses.

And she will not be called by the state.” Witwatersrand attorney general Klaus von Lieres said he had given no instructions for Mandela to be called as a witness. He added that the prosecutor did not have an obligation to subpoena every name mentioned during evidence. The defence team also confirmed they would not subpoena Mandela to testify. Three of the boys allegedly abducted, Kenneth Kgase, Thabiso Mono and Gabriel Pelo Mekgwe, said they were forcefully taken to Mandela’s house in Diepkloof extension and that Mandela was the first to sjambok them and Stompie. This was followed by assaults from other team members, including Richardson. Stompie’s corpse was found on January 6 1989 in an open field between Noordgesig and New Canada near Soweto. He is said to have died from wounds to the neck and subcutaneous contusion. On January 16 1989 a community meeting in Dobsonville near Soweto decided that community leaders would approach Mandela to discuss Stompie’s disappearance after the meeting had heard the testimonies of Mono, Mekgwe and Katiza Cebekhulu concerning the alleged abduction and assault.

This evidence was given in court yesterday by Methodist minister Paul Verryn. The boys were allegedly abducted from Verryn’s Orlando West manse. Apparently Mandela also accused the boys of sexual misconduct with Verryn before beating them. Verryn denied these allegations yesterday. Relating his first contact with the boys after the alleged kidnapping, Verryn said that on January 7 1989, he received a telephone call from the Central Methodist Church informing him of Kgase’s escape. He found Kgase at the church, with a bloodshot eye, a swollen lip and 20 scars on his back. “The first thing he (Kgase) told me was he had learned to kill” Kgase also intimated to Verryn that Stompie was no longer alive. Earlier this week Mono and Mekgwe recounted the events leading to their release from the Mandela home. According to their evidence, Nelson Mandela’s lawyer, Ismail Ayob, visited the house on two occasions during their alleged captivity. The first time Ayob came he informed Mandela the Methodist bishop Peter Storey wanted to see her, Mono said.

On the second occasion Ayob brought a message from Nelson Mandela in prison that the boys should be released and allowed to stay at his (Ayob’s) house. Apparently Richardson refused this second request saying he would not agree to “his players being taken to a place unknown to him”. According to the boys Winnie Mandela’s lawyer, Krish Naidoo, also visited the house and Richardson instructed them to tell Naidoo that they were at Mandela’s house because of sexual misconduct in Verryn’s home. Later that day Mandela did order Richardson and Xoliswa to take the boys to Ayob’s place, Mono said. But Richardson wanted to remain with the boys at Ayob’s place. Ayob said they should return with the boys if they were not prepared to leave them there. On January 16, Mono, Mekgwe and Cebekhulu were taken to Dr Nthato Motlana’s house in Soweto, and at 1pm Motlana took them to Verryn’s house, which was empty. Motlana then took them to Naidoo’s offices where Bishop Peter Storey met them. Apparently Richardson told Storey his name was “Manyways Maseko”.

They were then taken to the Dobsonville meeting. This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.

Question: Which famous name was accused f the abduction of Stompie Seipei?
Answer: Winnie Mandela